Students with Strong Calculation Skills will be Good at High School Mathematics
Edited by Stephen M. Syby
The following is taken from Seeking the Boundless Potential (a collection of lectures given during 1993-1994 by the late chairman Toru Kumon).
It seems that there are parents who doubt that only repeating calculation exercises will develop skills needed to handle word problems and to obtain an understanding of the theory of mathematics. What probably comes to the minds of most of these parents when they hear the word calculation is addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and maybe even fractions.
However, calculation encompasses not only mixed operations, fractions, and decimals but also equations, factorization, and differential and integral calculus. Once children master differential and integral calculus it is quite unlikely that they will ever struggle in mathematics. The Kumon Method makes it possible.
Ask children who dislike or hate mathematics why they do. Chances are you’ll get answers like “I can’t calculate” or “It’s boring.” It is said that children who hate calculating or ones that just fall by the wayside appear in grade three of elementary school. But these kinds of children don’t just appear out of the blue in grade three or four. They have suffered from an insufficient ability to calculate since first and second grades. For example, consider these ten problems:
5 + 6 =
7 + 2 =
4 + 9 =
3 + 8 =
2 +7 =
6 + 8 =
1 + 9 =
8 +7 =
9 = 4 =
7 + 5 =
whether at elementary school or at high school, if students cannot solve these problems within one minute, they will come to dislike mathematics. Claiming that “one’s way of thinking” is more important than this kind of basic calculation is clearly absurd.
Also, as I mentioned earlier, algebraic calculations such as equations, factorization, trigonometric functions, differential calculus, and integral calculus cannot be performed without a complete understanding of the basic calculations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions.
Study Focusing on Items Necessary in High School
The goal of the Kumon Method is to foster the skills needed to master junior and high school mathematics without struggling. In other words, the objective is high school mathematics. In order for students to steadily advance to this objective, only those problems necessary for reaching it were selected and arranged in the materials. Thus, Kumon doesn’t encompass a bulky, wide ranging curriculum like regular schools do; content that is not directly connected to high school mathematics has been left out.
Compared to school textbooks, the Kumon materials are lean and to the point. So what this means to children is that they can go on studying comfortably and with no strain, unlike textbook based study. Furthermore, the materials have been systematized into small steps to go from the levels of preschool, elementary school, junior high school, high school, and university. As a result, younger students, be they elementary or junior high school students, go on developing skills needed for high school mathematics.
Cindy McVay, M.Ed.
Kumon Math and Reading Center of Issaquah Highlands
1036 NE Park Drive
Issaquah, WA 98029
425-369-1072
Monday 3:00-6:30, Wednesday 3:00-6:30, Saturday 9:30-12:30
Kumon Math and Reading Center of Snoqualmie
7802 NE Park Drive
Snoqualmie, WA 98065
425-396-1700
Tuesday 3:00-6:30 and Friday 3:00-6:30
